Spring, Day 6: The Rundown

Ethan Burch

03/28/2014

ATHENS - Take a look at Dawg Post's rundown of Friday's Spring football practice.

1. For starters, Georgia practiced in shorts and pads today. The skies were a little cloudy, but the rain held off for the most part, as did the wind on a day where temperatures hovered around 59 degrees throughout the practice. Therefore, no excuses for wobbly passes or deep balls falling short of their intended receivers.

Park had a chance to hand off to A.J. Turman, who looks to be in great shape. The redshirt freshman tailback out of Orlando looks good. His confidence, physicality and footwork are all great right now.

2. I wanted to take a look at the arm strength comparisons between Mason, Bauta and Ramsey. For the record, I didn't see Park throw a lot of deep passes today in the 14 minutes I was at practice, but we'll get to him when the time comes.

Jordan Davis got a lot of work today with an assortment of quarterbacks. At 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, Davis looks the part. However, he's got to catch the ball after using that athleticism to get himself in space.

Davis ran a solid out route as Mason hit him with a bullet for a completion. However, Davis dropped two post routes that he was wide open on. Ramsey was the quarterback who hit Davis on both those passes. Ramsey's deep ball was right on the money I might add - not wobbly and definitely not a duck. He threw it on a rope.

I got a chance to see Bauta take a shot downfield on a post route, but it was a bit wobbly. It stayed in the air a little longer than I'm sure he would have liked.

So, what I took from that portion of practice is this:

Mason is composed, and he's accurate on short to medium-range throws. However, if you're looking for a playmaker downfield Ramsey may be your man. He's got a great arm.

3. A lot of time was devoted to punt coverage/return today. Damian Swann was back fielding most of the punts I saw at the beginning of practice. Swann looked confident and comfortable. On top of that, he displayed good hands, which is something Georgia undoubtedly wants to see.

4. Jonathon Rumph has looked more comfortable with the playbook this Spring. He's also used his height to come away with some jump balls in the air that could have gone to the defender. After battling a nagging hamstring injury throughout the 2013 season, the 6-foot-5 receiver is making the most of his Spring.

"I'm very excited," Rumph said. "I'm in a good position to showcase my talent and I just feel good about the team and specifically our receiver corps. We always stay on top of each other so you know everyone is working to improve and get better. I feel real good about it."

Health was, and continues to be an issue for Georgia's receiving corps with the absences of Malcolm Mitchell and Justin Scott-Wesley. This is an opportunity for Rumph to prepare himself for a bigger role in Georgia's offense this season.

"Spring's just a great time for kind of those guys that are backing them up to get some reps (and) get some opportunities to show what they can do because in the fall, if somebody goes down, that next guy's got to step right in," quarterback Hutson Mason said.

Rumph had just seven catches for 121 yards in 2013, but has shown he has bigger aspirations than that for next season.

"Jonathon Rumph, I think so far might be the MVP at receiver for Spring ball," Mason said. "He's just night and day from last Spring. He's always been that big body guy that you thought could just throw up to and he'd get it, but he's just flat out making more plays this Spring than he was last Spring."

5. Jeremy Pruitt's arrival in Athens has added noticeable energy to the defense. His added spark to Georgia's defense has got some of the offensive players excited, too.

"Coach Pruitt has kind of brought a new attitude to this defense," Mason said. "When the defense is energetic and kind of flying around it motivates us to be energetic and it creates a lot of energy."

Mason explained how much the defensive effort has helped improve the offense's performance through these first few practices.

"Guys are flying around to the ball," Mason said. "That's not really something that you saw a lot of last year; a lot more effort on both sides of the ball. We're just trying to practice and preach intensity and flying to the ball."